AND NOW...

The Democratic Convention is over. We have celebrated and congratulated; applauded and lauded; extolled and feted. Rightly so, we have let our hopes become tears of joy and our dreams become giddy dances. Whether slow smiles or exuberant high fives, we passed through a moment in history with the pleasure of the long denied, the satisfaction of a long sought goal won. A woman, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is a Presidential nominee.

And now...

Now we go back to work, for this has merely been half time. A time out in the tough work of moving our country forward and letting Hillary lead us on that path. Time out in the race to add enough votes to make the final score a win.

So for every pull on your heart of deep seated pleasure this week, do these things.

Register to vote if you have not. Be sure you know when, where and how to cast your vote. Learn the rules. Next, register others. Hand them the materials. Family. Friends. Everyone. Take them to sign up. Buy them coffee and ask them to help too.

Find the Clinton headquarters in your town. Volunteer. Put up signs. Go door-to-door. Make phone calls. Text, tweet and Instagram. Talk to your neighbors. Have friends to coffee.

Go to www.HillaryClinton.com  Donate. Then donate again. Sign up to volunteer. Make phone calls. Donate.

On election day; vote, make calls, drive voters to the polls.

Work every day until the election because that's what it will take.

The work is not done. The game is not over. The prize is not won.
It takes a village.

A ROOM FULL OF WISDOM

One of the great joys of my retirement was being asked to join a Book Club - something a job with uncertain and long hours made such a regular commitment difficult. And I do so love to read. Every day. It is a love I come by from a family of readers. No book given to Mom, a sister, a husband or a daughter goes unread and then unpassed to all the others. We even have a system of post-it designations for ownership and who has read each book thus far. Our own private library system.

But a Book Club is special; a group for whom the express purpose is to read, reflect and discuss a common book; a group that brings, shares and mingles its various backgrounds, life experiences and points of view into one thoughtful, vigorous and sometimes hilarious discussion.

My good fortune was being asked into a long standing group of women of high intelligence, considerable passion and a wide variety of worldly wisdom and involvement. We are never "just" discussing a book, but the ideas and life that the book expresses for each of us.

The deeper we roam through and the further afield we roam from book specifics, the more I appreciate the insights and experiences of each woman; women who reach out to others, who welcome new people, who believe that expanding and including are healthy yet value the foundations of an ongoing discourse. And each month I am struck anew at the sheer mass of wisdom that resides in these women. Truly, a room full of wisdom.

Women's Voices

One of the best parts of having a wonderful, adult daughter is how much she teaches me each time we are together. Last Friday she reinforced my appreciation of her strength and skill in meeting life as a woman. And in doing so gave me the opportunity to see and marvel first hand at the evolution of the women's movement.

As a young adult I spent time, talent and a bit of temper trying to help craft laws, open minds and win hearts to equality for women; in the family, in the workplace and in the world. I am, justifiably I hope, proud of those efforts. Predictably, the passage of years brought changes to the movement and the larger community.

Sometimes, as the next generations of women made their way, it was easy to lose sight of progress. Easy to question if anyone remembered the fight from which they were now benefiting. Even sometimes easy to lose sight of the fact that what we really fought for was choices - legitimate choices.

Then my daughter took me to a MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers) meeting. At first blush it was a breakfast, inspirational or informational guest speaker, sharing, support and problem solving group for mothers of preschool children. Most were not employed outside the home. It seemed a context in which I was unlikely to be considering the impact of votes for women, equal pay for equal work, Title IX and the equal rights amendment.

Yet as I sat watching my heart became so full with pride I felt it would burst. What wonderful, complex, talented women. I was indeed watching the success of the women's movement. These women ran their own show. Direct, self-confident, standing up, organizing and leading they embodied the fruition of every long debate about the place of women in the world. The context in which they moved mountains and created community was theirs to choose. But that choice or any other ultimately pales next to their ability to mold life with a freedom imagined and denied to many previous generations.

Is it perfect? Of course not. Are there still battles to be fought, resistence to master? Of course. Does the fight look like it did when I was young? No, it is not even the same fight everywhere or for all women. But from MOPS to MomsRising, the women are present, they are engaged, their voices are raised and they are strong.

What more could an aging feminist ask?